Androids on steroids: joint Lollipop + Wear review - part II

The CLOCK

If you ask me, Moto 360 is by FAR the best looking wearable tech clock present on the market today. This was my impression when I saw first photos, release videos by Motorola have convinced me even more & when I got the item on my wrist, there could be no doubt anymore - it looks as good live as it did on pictures.

PROS

high quality of materials & high precision of production

awesome display

universal, minimalistic design

satisfactory battery life (easily enough for 1 day)

replaceable straps

connector-less charging (you put the device on a dedicated stand)

charging is lightning-fast

CONS

no rubber straps by default, the leather one doesn't look very durable

a bit too thick (for my taste)

no stand = no recharge

It my look controversial that I find the battery that lasts 1 full day enough & satisfactory, but charging with the stand is zero burden & if you make putting a watch there for a night your habit you'll soon forget that there's any kind of charging taking place at all.

Android Wear

Using Moto 360 barely makes sense when not paired with Android-powered phone - watch can't access Internet or GSM network directly. Pairing is done via Bluetooth. The only software needed is named Android Wear & is freely available in Google Play. I didn't check Android version requirements (for phone).

Wearable tech OS is very simple & it mainly consists of:

displaying time with customizable watchfaces

voice commands (nicely configurable)

mix of notifications with Google Now - very, very context-based

Synergy

It's the last feature from the list above that really makes a difference, because it's bound to Google Now on my phone. What does it mean?

If it's my usual time to leave work, watch shows me the timetable for the nearest bust stop & estimated time to get home

It notifies me whether I met my goal on Google Fit. And if I didn't, it shows me the progress

Obviously I get the notifications about incoming e-mails / messages / phone calls, social interactions or app-related notifications (for instance - from Duolingo, Meetup). The notification contains some of message's data

Calendar / weather related information is accessible all the time, it can be displayed even directly on the watchface

The ergonomy of working with these notifications is very high. Mix that with the high precision of touch-enabled display & you've got an item with a very nice potential.

Myth-busting

Let's clear some things out:

It's NOT possible to do many simple operations like freely browsing e-mails, SMSes, etc.

Wear lets you do many context actions, BUT usually the action itself happens on the phone, not on the watch

No, you can't use the watch as a wrist phone ;D

I didn't find a way to refresh the notifications - they appear as watch wants

you don't setup any accounts on your watch, everything is set up on your phone

there's no security "lock/unlock" option in the watch, but keeping in mind what I've written above, there's no need for one

Display is not active 100% all the time: there are 2 modes:

dimmed & it lights on when detects movement

off & it lights on when touched (default)

Summary

Moto 360 didn't change my life. It didn't make me able to do new things or to make things better / faster. But I love it anyway (for now). 30m of Bluetooth range make me able to leave the phone at the desk & freely move in the office space. Notifications are very useful & displayed pieces of data are more than enough.

The hardware itself looks classy - it fits both casual & formal attire. Everything works very smoothly and I haven't spotted any bug yet. Display is very clean & its UI utilizes material design.

So far I can confirm that Moto 360 is the best wearable tech device I've used so far. And it's price (250 USD) is not that far more than sensible quality watch'es one, so I can easily recommend it for any geek :)